Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Give It Arrest by Ed Feulner

As the American Bar Association reported a few years ago, there are now so many laws (at least 4,000 by one expert estimation) “that there is no conveniently accessible, complete list of federal crimes.” Throw in federal regulations (there are 300,000 of them, according to a Columbia law professor), state laws and local ordinances, and you, too, could be a felon and not even know it.

This shouldn’t be the case. And, not surprisingly, it hasn’t been throughout our history.

There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. -- Ayn Rand from Atlas Shrugged

By making it so any action by a person can be interpreted as illegal enables an oppressive government to selectively enforce it depending upon a given person’s political connections/anointed victim status.

It is an essential part of arbitrary law. The U.S. Constitution stands as an expression of objective law, which is why the Left is working so hard to erode it. Expect the next Supreme Court Justice to be a fellow traveler in that pursuit.